The Henry Announces Brink Award Finalists

Three emerging Seattle artists join the elite eight in this biennial competition.

Work by Brink finalist Dawn Cerny: Camp Carmel, 2011, resin coated paper, fake flowers, vase. On display at Season in May 2011.

Henry Art Gallery thinks these eight emerging artists are on the "brink" of something big. No word how big, exactly, but let’s just say that if they were teenage drivers, you’d feel comfortable handing them the keys to the Benz. The 2011 Brink Award finalists, who will compete for $12,500 and a solo show at the Henry, are: Grant Barnhart (Seattle, WA), Debra Baxter (Seattle, WA), Dawn Cerny (Seattle, WA), Andrew Dadson (Vancouver, BC), Tannaz Farsi (Eugene, OR), Allison Hrabluik (Vancouver, BC), and artist team Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen (Portland, OR).

The winner will be announced on April 22, after the selection committee—a crew of big wigs that includes Henry director Sylvia Wolf, Seattle artist Victoria Haven, and Brink benefactors John and Shari Behnke—tours the artists’ studios in March and April. Inaugural Brink winner Isabelle Pauwels, a rising Vancouver-based artist, managed to both tantalize and frustrate with her video installation at the Henry in 2009. Here’s hoping the new winner takes big risks, too.